We Wish You a Merry Christmas
]] "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is a popular English Christmas carol from the West Country of England. History In 1935, Oxford University Press published a four-part choral arrangement by Arthur Warrell under the title "A Merry Christmas", describing the piece as a "West Country Traditional Song". Arthur Sydney Warrell, born Farmborough, 1883, died Bristol, 1939. Served as organist and choirmaster and several Bristol churches. Subsequently taught music at Bristol University and founded the Bristol University Choir, Orchestra, and Madrigal Singers. See Warrell's arrangement is notable for using "I" instead of "we" in the lyrics; the first line is "I''' wish you a Merry Christmas". It was subsequently republished in the collection Carols for Choirs (1961), and remains widely performed.In the Carols for Choirs reprint, but not in the 1935 original, the option of replacing "I wish you a Merry Christmas" by the more common "'''We wish you a Merry Christmas" is given The earlier history of the carol is unclear. It is absent from the collections of West-countrymen Davies Gilbert (1822 and 1823) and William Sandys (1833), as well as from the great anthologies of Sylvester (1861) and Husk (1864).Husk, William Henry (ed.) [https://archive.org/stream/songsofnativityb00husk#page/n6/mode/1up Songs of the Nativity], London: John Camden Hotten, 1864. It is also missing from The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). In the comprehensive New Oxford Book of Carols (1992), editors Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott describe it as "English traditional" and "the remnant of an envoie much used by wassailers and other luck visitors"; no source or date is given. Origin The greeting "a merry Christmas and a happy New Year" is recorded from 1740. The English custom of performing inside or outside homes in return for food and drink is illustrated in the short story The Christmas Mummers (1858) by Charlotte Yonge, in which a group of boys run to a farmer's door and sing: }} After they are allowed in and perform a Mummers play, the boys are served beer by the farmer's maid.ibid. p. 93 The origin of this Christmas carol lies in the English tradition wherein wealthy people of the community gave Christmas treats to the carolers on Christmas Eve, such as "figgy pudding" that was very much like modern-day Christmas puddings.Brech, Lewis (2010). "Storybook Advent Carols Collection Songbook". p. 48. Couples Company, Inc,Lester, Meera (2007). "Why Does Santa Wear Red?: And 100 Other Christmas Curiousities Unwrapped" p.146. Adams Media,"We Wish You a Merry Christmas! - Christmas Songs of England". Retrieved December 11, 2010 A variety of nineteenth-century sources state that, in the West Country of England, "figgy pudding" referred to a raisin or plum pudding, not necessarily one containing figs."A 'figgy pudding'; a pudding with raisins in it; a plum pudding", from "Devonshire and Cornwall Vocabulary", [https://books.google.com/books?id=7LQRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA435 The Monthly Magazine vol. 29/6, no. 199, June 1, 1810. p. 435]"Plum-pudding and plum-cake are universally called figgy pudding and figgy cake in Devonshire", from "Figgy Pudding ... the ordinary name for plum-pudding. Also a baked batter pudding with raisins in it", Lyrics :We wish you a merry Christmas, :We wish you a merry Christmas, :We wish you a merry Christmas :And a happy New Year. :Good tidings we bring :To you and your kin; :We wish you a merry Christmas :And a happy New Year. ;2 :Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, :Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, :Oh, bring us some figgy pudding, :And bring it right here. :Good tidings we bring :To you and your kin; :We wish you a merry Christmas :And a happy New Year. ;3 :we won't go till we get some, :We won't go till we get some, :we won't go till we get some, :So bring it right here. :Good tidings we bring :To you and your kin; :We wish you a merry Christmas :And a happy New Year. : ;4 :we all like our figgy pudding, :We all like our figgy pudding, :we all like our figgy pudding, :With all it's good cheers :Good tidings we bring :To you and your kin; :We wish you a merry Christmas :And a happy New Year. :We wish you a merry Christmas :We wish you a merry Christmas :We wish you a merry Christmas :And a happy New Year. Version 1 Chorus: We wish you a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas And a Happy New Year Good tidings we bring To you and your king We wish you a Merry Christmas And a Happy New Year We wish you a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas And a Happy New Year (Some versions use "glad tidings" instead of "good tidings"e.g., http://michaelkravchuk.com/free-lead-sheet-merry-christmas/; accessed 2015-12-09) Now bring us some figgy pudding, Now bring us some figgy pudding, Now bring us some figgy pudding, And bring some out here REFRAIN For we all like figgy pudding, We all like figgy pudding, For we all like figgy pudding, So bring some out here REFRAIN And we won't go until we've got some We won't go until we've got some We won't go until we've got some So bring some out here REFRAIN Version 3 We wish you a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. REFRAIN Good tidings we bring for you and your kin, Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year. O bring us some figgy pudding (x3) and bring it right here. REFRAIN And we won't go until we've got some (x3) so bring some out here. REFRAIN It's a season for music (x3) and a time of good Cheer. REFRAIN Version 4 We wish you a Merry Christmas (x3) and a Happy New Year. REFRAIN Good tidings to you, where ever you are Good Tidings at Christmas and a Happy New Year (The first line of the refrain can also be rendered as "Good tidings we bring, to you of good cheer") Now bring us some figgy pudding (x3) and bring it right here REFRAIN now bring some tea and breakfast (x3) and bring it right here REFRAIN Christmas time is coming, (x3) It soon will be here REFRAIN See also * List of Christmas carols * Christmas carol * Christmas music References Category:Christmas carols Category:16th-century songs Category:16th century in England Category:Christmas in England Category:Christmas songs Category:English songs Category:British songs